Hearings putting state's finances under scrutiny to be changed

The government will seek to push through changes to how the parliament's budget estimates process is carried out, condensing seven days worth of hearings into two.

A meeting of the Committee of the Legislative Assembly, the group in charge of changes to parliamentary processes, decided to change how the eight budget estimates hearings were heard on Tuesday.

The decision was made without the committee's chair, because Speaker Fiona Simpson is away on an international study tour.

The budget estimates hearings is the one time of the year when ministers and their departments are put under intense scrutiny about how they spend tax payer funds.

Those called to a committee hearing are compelled to answer honestly. Answers which are found to be wrong result in heavy penalties.

The process evolved from recommendations from the Fitzgerald Inquiry and was designed to make governments more publicly accountable on how they spent public money.

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Annastacia Palaszczuk has the option of attending all committee hearings in her role as opposition leader.

Changing the hearings timetable so each budget estimates committee sits at once will mean Ms Palaszczuk would have to move through all the hearings, instead of being able to dedicate her time to each committee as it sat.

Last year, Ms Palaszczuk attended all but the agriculture hearing.

The change will also hamper media coverage of the hearings because it would mean journalists would have to choose which committee hearing they sat in on.

Speaking to The Courier Mail, Mr Seeney said he believed the change would mean "ministers will get twice the time before committees and they'll sit together".

Mr Seeney would not comment on Wednesday, ahead of the parliamentary debate, but a spokeswoman from his office confirmed the move.

A spokesman for the opposition said due to the standing orders of the parliament, it could not comment.

Parliament is expected to debate the changes on Wednesday afternoon.

Given the government's majority, any move to alter the committees will be guaranteed success.